Genomics and Biostatistics Core SUMMARY The objective of the Genomics and Biostatistics Core of this COBRE is to support and to enhance the research productivity of our junior investigators, as well as that of non-COBRE investigators. This is measured by our contributions to their peer-reviewed publications and grant applications. Our clients utilize our services at the study planning and design phase, as well as during the data analysis phase. We provide a variety of data acquisition services, including Sanger sequencing, flow cytometry, and nucleic acid quantitation and quality control, among others. Importantly, we have brought to researchers at out institution next-generation sequencing capability. We offer RNA-sequencing, miRNA-sequencing, whole-exome sequencing and exosome sequencing. In Phase II, these offerings will be expanded to include ChIP-sequencing and AmpliSeq. Our enhanced instrumentation and expanded personnel will make this possible, and this will help satiate the ever-increasing appetite for all of these applications. In addition, we are putting in place the validation of cell lines and animals for our investigators. Our new data analytic facilities in Phase II will allow our clients to receive data that is not only clean and valid quantitatively but also has been put through a bioinformatics pipeline that makes it relevant biologically in broader terms. The biostatistics component provided by this Core will continue to support sound study design and powering of experiments, as well as the utilization of appropriate statistical tools in data analysis. Both the biostatistics and bioinformatics components of this Core will contribute to the development of new and better approaches to the handling of the data our investigators generate.